Fate

Chapter 2

Four days left in this heck hole. With nothing to do, I entertained myself by trying to count the goose feathers in my pillow. It had ripped open.

            Mom and dad were in and out of the inn. Mom went to the market to get my favorite foods, and a new birthday cake. Two more days passed before anything interesting happened.

            I woke up thinking: Two more days left in this heck hole, like I think every morning, except counting down. Noah was asleep on the pile of hay dad had brought into the inn. Everything was quiet. Mom and dad were nowhere to be found. Suddenly I heard a shriek from outside our hallway. What was that smell? Bacon? Pork? It smelled like smoke that’s for certain. Speaking of smoke, what was the gray stuff creeping in from under the door?

            It took me a while to realize that the inn was on fire. Oh crap. Oh crap oh crap oh crap! Crap crap crap! Shoot! I went through a string of bad words in my head before remembering what to do.

            Quickly I woke Noah up. He was panicked too. We ran for the window. It wouldn’t open. Suddenly the door to our room burst into flames. The fire was spreading quickly.

            Franticly, I pulled on the glass window. Nothing was happening. It wouldn’t even budge. Noah joined in. The hay that Noah had slept on caught on fire, as did the bed. The room was almost completely in flames.

            Noah screamed the worst word I’d ever heard him say. And it was bad. It was REALLY bad. Frantically, he ripped the bed post off of the bed, which was on fire. Holding the end of the post that was not burning, he lunged at the window. The stick smashed through, and the window shattered, sending glass flying everywhere.

            I felt pieces of glass sink into my arms, legs, face; oh my dear Lord one hit me in the chest. It pierced through my shirt. I could see Noah get hit with glass too. Ignoring the pain, we both coughed down smoke and prepared to jump. The curtains were now on fire. There wasn’t time to climb down the rocks. We took hands, closed our eyes and jumped into the deep, freezing water of the lake. I felt the glass leave my body, and felt the burn of the lake water colliding with the freshly opened wounds. I screamed, but no sound came out. My lungs flooded with water.

            Having water and smoke in your lungs is not a good feeling. It just isn’t. I panicked. More panic erupted as I felt myself sinking. I gasped and reached up, my hand clasping water. I fought and fought, my body and lungs burning. I must be dead by now. I must be dead by now, I thought. I closed my eyes and felt myself relax…

***

            Coughing, spluttering, I was pulled from the icy cold water. My vision was blurry. Something came out of my throat, was it… oh dear God I was coughing up bloody water. I began to feel dizzy. Someone touched my arm. It wasn’t Noah. In fact, I didn’t know where Noah was. I sat up quickly—too quickly—and fell back down again.

            “My brother—,”was all I managed to cough out, “Where’s my brother?”

            “Of Lord there were two of you?” said an unfamiliar voice. It—he sounded young.

            “I’ll go back in,” said another voice. Moments later I heard a splash.

            I tried to focus, but my head was spinning and I was still coughing up water and blood—mostly blood—but I managed to see a boy (teenager? Definitely around my age--) with dark hair. His facial expression was worried. I heard a shout from the distance.

            “I found him!” someone yelled.

            “He okay?” said the boy who was leaning over me.